DFA
by The Warsmith
Summary: The Second Company of the Raven Guard are deployed in their trademark fashion to break the back of an heretical uprising. Reviews appreciated...


DFA

The so-called Nocturnis cycle had fallen on the war torn world of Ardent IV. In its orbit around the sun, Ardent IV fell under the massive shadow of two far larger sister planets that resulting in a total and perfect pitch-black night throughout most of the planet for about six hours once every four months. The Nocturnis cycle was a natural wonder on Ardent IV as meteor showers were frequent during this period, the black sky lighting up with hundreds of star trails.

But tonight the beauty of the cycle was lost to most of Ardent IV's inhabitants, her capital city and outlying areas the sites of vicious street-to-street fights.

Not more than three months ago a demagogue preaching a radical version of the Imperial cult had risen to a position of considerable influence among the disenchanted, overworked population that toiled daily in the endless administrative cycle that the galaxy spanning Imperium required to keep coherent. He claimed that the sightless overseers of Ardent IV, in forcing the majority of the population to conform to an endless process of paper counting and stylus pushing, had abandoned the will of true Emperor.

The true God Emperor of mankind was not interested in the entire tedious, mind rotting scratch work of the bureaucrat. He was a benevolent ruler, who wished his subjects experienced the hedonistic joys of life, not to be cooped up in some dull administratum building working thanklessly till old age takes you, but to allowed to partake in any sensation that they pleased. For the true meaning of life is pleasure, pleasure for pleasure's sake. The demagogue's words caught like wildfire through the oppressed masses and soon numerous cults of experience were springing up throughout the planet, where increasingly debased and obscene acts were perpetuated on a nightly basis.

The rules of Ardent IV however were not deaf to the heretical message spread by the Tongue of the Emperor, as the demagogue had come to be known by his worshipers, and pleas for aid for an Ordos Hereticus purging had been made promptly when the gravity of the situation had been realized. Ardent IV was not a martial world, maintaining only a minimal defense force that was in no way capable of dealing with a problem of this size. The response of the Witch Hunters did not arrive in time.

The population, stirred by the blasphemous promises of the Tongue of the Emperor, cast aside their positions in the bureaucracy and revolted against their rulers. Abandoning their work stations they rampaged towards Ardent IV's capital in a rag-tag screaming mob with murderous intent. Ardent IV's stationed force of Adeptus Arbites and PDF attempted hold back the screaming mob, but their numbers were too few and most of them fell defending the capital's armories where a modest supply of weaponry were stockpiled, overwhelmed by fanatical waves of deranged ex-clerks and scribes. Now armed, the mob turned on the planet's overseers who were also butchered in short order after putting up a token resistance. Soon the Capital administratum building of Ardent IV became the head temple for the Cult of the Experience and aside from pockets of determined loyalist resistance, the entire population of Ardent IV roiled in corruption.

It probably came as a surprise to the newly initiated cultists to the cult of experience that they had not been following the word of Emperor when the façade fell away, showing the Cult of Experience's true dedicated to the decadent and debased worship of Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. However, they had become accustomed to the much more gratifying escape that Slaanesh offered over the Imperial cult and they embraced the worship of the Dark Prince of Chaos with wild abandon. But the Cult had barely enjoyed their first week of autonomy from Imperial rule when the fiery sword of Emperor's retribution fell upon Ardent IV like a thunderbolt on a clear day.

Regiments of Indentured Imperial Guard, supported by an Order of Battle Sisters and a full Inquisitorial Task Force led by the fiery and merciless Witch Hunter Tyrus himself. Every sector of the planet was methodically swept clean of heretical presence, under the roar of the flamer, the snap of the lasgun and the roar of the bolter, the loyalist pressed forward to the capital of Ardent IV in the face of determined resistance. Tyrus knew that as with all bastard cults of Slaanesh the unbreakable dedication of its members normally lay with the power that the cult's leader held over them, no doubt through dark sorceries. And he had requisitioned a force that he would play as his trump card in dealing with that issue just as the black sky of Ardent IV was lit up for a brief moment by a stab of forked lightning.

The Squadron of Black Thunderhawk Gunships entered Ardent IV; the multiple sonic booms from their decent into the atmosphere mistaken as an effect of the violent thunderstorms that usually accompanied the Nocturnis cycle. Their presence on radar augers masked by the interference from the lightning and meteor showers. The four iron specters of impending doom to the unsuspecting heretics, powered towards the heart of Ardent IV's corruption, their engines specially muffled to a dull roar rather than a keening scream by the necessity of the covert drop. Bay doors slowly ground open exposing the crew compartment to the freezing temperature and buffeting winds of high altitude, not that the warriors in the crew compartment would have minded in their sealed suits of power armor.

Shadow Captain Aajz Solari of the Second Company turned to regard his command squad in the interior of the lead Gunship, his beaked Corvus helmet making him look like a watchful bird of prey. He had waited days for this exact moment to strike the enemy, there was no way that the rebels knew of Raven guard's approach and him and his company would deliver the crippling blow to the heart of the heretics.

"Captain Solari to all Raven Guard forces. The Raven is in its ascendancy." He said through a link in an encrypted comm. Channel to the rest of his brethren giving the word for the attack to commence.

Runes of acknowledgement winked up from each squad leader in his helmet's heads up display indicating their readiness to strike. Aajz nodded to his waiting talon of warriors, they looked relaxed and prepared but Aajz could feel their keening need to deal righteous death to those who would turn their back on the Emperor.

"Brothers, we go to war!" Aajz spoke again, disengaging the magnetic clamps that held him firmly to the seat of the Gunship and made his way to the yawing opening at the back of the Thunderhawk's bay door, "Vinctorus aut Mortis."

"From the darkness we strike, fast and lethal, and by the time our foes can react… Darkness there and nothing more." His talon replied in unison.

Behind his helmet Aajz smiled, this was what he lived for. "DFA." he whispered to himself before taking a deep breath and hurling himself headlong out of the Thunderhawk into the satin night of Ardent IV. Aajz fell like a rocket; his body held rigid with his arms crossed firmly over her chest as if in prayer and he saw his strike force hurtling down all around him all in similar aerodynamic positions to take them to the enemy all the faster.

Empty air whistled past Aajz, forming thin slim streams across his armor, his helmet's audio receptors picking up the keen whistle so well that it he had no helmet on at all. Exhilaration thundered through the Shadow Captain's veins, no matter that he had executed hundreds of such drops, the freedom that he felt free falling and the thrill of knowing that he was about to deal righteous death to those below him filled him with a warrior's joy. And he knew that the same joy sang through the hearts of those joining him.

Forty black shapes sped towards their objective, blended perfectly against the black sky of Ardent IV. Plummeting at more than a hundred and eighty kilometers an hour the tiny, winking specks of lights that were Ardent IV's capital rapidly grew into focus under the augmented night vision systems of Power Armor helmets. The assault marines covered the maximum drop distance in about forty-five seconds and the rebels stationed on the walls of Ardent IV's Capital adrministratum building looked up curiously at the night sky, hearing a familiar keening scream that grew increasing louder and louder.

Then they noticed for the first time the Space Marines from their contrasting white shoulder pads or helmets, shocked from the suddenness from such an unexpected attack they hesitated from a moment before shouting to raise the alarm. That hesitation would cost them dear.

Aajz snapped his arms open abruptly and rolled deftly in the air to right his posture for landing, at the same time activating his jump pack. The Raven Guard around him did likewise with a precision that came from endless practice and the keening banshee scream from their descent was drowned out by the vengeful howl of forty jump packs firing up, and on wings of fire, the Raven Guard struck. For the first time since the drop Aajz broke the silence,

"Death From Above!" He bellowed the trademark Adeptus Astartes assault squad motto, his call taken up by the rest of the Marines as battle was joined.

Frag grenades and bolt pistol mass reactive rounds rained down upon the milling rebels, mercilessly scything down those in the open and encouraging those that had found shelter to keep their heads down. Return fire was sporadic and poorly aimed but Aajz saw several Raven Guard take hits and careen wildly out of control, crashing fatally inside the plaza of capital building. Aajz recognized Sergeant Nauril a veteran of many combat drops, trailing burning fuel from a ruptured fuel tank as he smashed into a civilian car in a billowing explosion to the cheers of the heretics. However this cheer died in their throats as Aajz saw the Sergeant tear his way out the flaming wreckage, pumping shots into the mass of rebels, the fuel burning off harmlessly off his armor as the Space Marine advanced towards them, his power fist humming menacingly.

Aajz's attention was torn away from the scene as the altimeter his helmet beeped a furious warning that he was quickly about to touch down. Powering down his jump pack, Aajz fell the last few meters, crushing two heretics under him and rolling into a fighting crouch. His lightning claws sprang from their sheaths in his gauntlets and he took stock of the situation, his strike force had made a successful deep strike into the enemy's heart with minimal casualties, now to signaling for the rest of his company in orbit to begin drop pod deployment, and to find this cult's leader, the so-called tongue of the Emperor.

"Raven Guard! I want this perimeter cleared of heretics for the arrival rest of our brethren!" He ordered as he was charged by a mob of wild-eyed cultists, screaming mad oaths of dedication to Slaanesh. Aajz struck with blinding speed, thundering his boot into the groin of the first attacker. The rebel, his pelvis shattered, screamed in pain and doubled over and Aajz lopped off his head with an upward sweep of his lightning claws. He spun under a bludgeoning blow from a rifle butt and cleanly shearing the second rebel's legs out from under him, bringing his boot down and pulverizing the fallen man's skull. He slashed his crackling talons across the bodies of two more rebels spilling intestines before cleaving them in half with his return strokes. The last cultist stumbled and tried to flee from the black clad Juggernaught that had ribboned his cult mates to efficiently and callously. Aajz did not give him to chance, impaling the backpedaling cultist though the chest on his lightning claws and staring into the man's terrified eyes for a brief moment before tossing his corpse aside effortlessly.

The adrenaline of combat thundered in Aajz's heart and he looked around to see his men methodically slaughtering any form of resistance they encountered. A cultist fell to his knees pleading for mercy before Sergeant Nauril and Aajz watched as the Sergeant's great power fist closed on the cultists head, crushing it jelly, silencing his cries.

"There will be no mercy for those who would turn away from the light of the Emperor." Aajz whispered to himself as he charged into a milling mass of cultists, his Lightning Claws sweeping in deadly arc, scything down men with every blow.

There were more lights in the sky that could have been easily mistaken as another meteor shower. But Aajz noticed their vectored atmospheric entry and recognized them to be drop pods that would deliver the rest of his company to consolidate their position and there was nothing that the reeling rebels could do to stop them. The drop pods thundered down towards their position, retro rockets firing as they neared their landing zone slowing their suicidal drop. The Raven Guard assault force cautiously withdrew lest they be crushed to death beneath the drop pods as they slammed into the capital, cracking the ferrocrete floor and hissing clouds of steam as assault ramps dropped, disgorging more Marines into the fray.

A building roar of jet turbines heralded the arrival of Thunderhawks from a different squadron, these ones laden with Rhino and Predator armored vehicles. Te four Gunships passed once overhead, mercilessly strafed rebel strong points with a withering hail of heavy caliber fire before swooping back in for a combat landing, their armored charges rumbling out of bay doors to support their brethren on foot.

With the bulk of their forces deployed, the assault squads renewed their onslaught against the furiously regrouping cultists, but this time they were supported by their Tactical and Devastator brethren and the chugging roar of heavy bolters and the searing blast of flamers quickly turned the would-be rebel counter attack into a decisive rout. Tracer fire whipped across the streets as Devastator Marines lay down suppressing curtains of fire for the Tactical Marines as they flushed out and cut down cultists that had attempted to go to ground. The battle was essentially over, the purge had just begun.

But Aajz had no time to savor this victory that essentially turned the tide of the battle, instead he had led his assault squads deep into the Capital Administratum Building in search of the Tongue of the Emperor. No cultists could stand before the wrath of the Raven Guard with Aajz at their head and they carved a bloody swathe through anything that dared to stand in their way till they had reached the top floor of Capital Administratum. The Imperial heraldry had been defaced by obscene graffiti and the crescents of the Slaanesh in a luminous pink paint that hurt the eyes to even look upon. And sitting at the head of what was a great oak office table where the planet's previous overseers of the planet had met to discuss petty bureaucratic matters, was the corruptor of Ardent IV, the tongue of the Emperor surrounded by fawning cultists both male and female in various stages of undress.

Aajz's stomach crawled to see the noble human spirit so far fallen into debauchery and he strode to center of the room before the curious gaze of the cult leader. Removing his helmet and securing it to his belt, the Shadow Captain displayed the unique physical mutation that marked him out as a son of Corax. Aajz's skin was paper white that seemed to glow in the dim of the great room and his hair and pupils were a perfect black that was mirrored by the night sky outside.

"By order of the Emperor and his trusted servant, Lord Inquisitor Tyrus of the Ordos Hereticus. You, bastard heretic filth, are to be called into account for you actions." Aajz spat the words out like they were poison, his every fiber of being telling to tear this smirking scum limb from limb. But Inquisitor Tyrus had been very specific that examples had be made and that the Cultist leader was to be brought back to him alive for public torture and execution. And Aajz knew that the fate Tyrus promised was a thousand times worse than the quick death that the Shadow Captain could offer.

"You are to come with us to stand before the Lord Inquisitor." Aajz growled. "You are not to resist, but please free to do so." He added menacingly, his bloodied lighting claws springing from their sheaths to accentuate his point.

A howl of insane laughter echoed throughout the quiet room as the Tongue of the Emperor rose from his seat and pranced around the table towards the Raven Guard, every haughty step like a stab of offense in Aajz's heart.

"You would seek to ARREST me? How quaint." He muttered, smiling indulgently. "Do you think you could handle me, loyalist lapdog?"

"I have dealt to death to hundreds of weak minded cultists who were mightier than you. Yes, I think I think I can handle you, you bastard heretic!" Aajz shot back, taking a step forward.

A flare of annoyance crossed the Cult leader's pale features. "I am the Anointed of Slaanesh! I will be the death of you!" He screamed and launched himself as Aajz and in a fluid motion drew a curved dagger from belt. He was faster than a normal man should be and his aim was puissant, designed to stab between Aajz gorget and helmet into his throat. But he was facing a normal man either.

Aajz saw this coming and twisted away from the Cult leader's thrust. Simultaneously kicking out at the man's knee, cracking it horribly backwards and pitching him on his face, Aajz stamped his heel down contemptuously on the man's hand that clenched the knife. The Tongue of the Emperor's shrill scream of was like sweet music to Aajz's ears as the man sat up and cradled the ruined stump that was once his hand, his left leg bent unnaturally under him.

"How does THAT feel, degenerate?" Aajz roared, grasping the whimpering cult leader by the throat Aajz picked him up as if he weighted nothing at all and drove him with a snarl through the thick oak table, scattering the screaming attendants and splintering the table like it was made of cork. The man coughed up a welter of blood and scrabbled at the Raven guard's vice like grip with his good hand but Aajz was merciless and hurled the man, screaming into a wall with a sickening thud where he fell in a crumpled heap.

The Shadow Captain regarded the twitching ruin of the cultist leader for a moment as if considering continuing the punishment. Then turned to his command squad and motioned to what was the Tongue of the Emperor, "Brother Apothecary Korari, take a look at this filth."

A Raven Guard with pure white trim on his armor stepped forward and gave the man an appraising look.

"He'll live, Shadow Captain." The Space Marine said flatly.

"Good." Aajz hissed. " Cauterize his wounds and mail him to Lord Inquisitor Tyrus with out fondest regards."

Korari nodded, "Yes, Shadow Captain."

And without another word Aajz Solari, Shadow Captain of the Second Company of the Raven Guard, replaced his helmet, turned on his heel and stalked out of the room into the night of Ardent IV. The Tongue of the Emperor was within their custody and soon Inquisitor Tyrus would ensure that the heretic would wish that Aajz had been merciful and finished him then and there. The will of the cultists would no doubt crumble when their leader's gruesome torture and execution was broadcasted planet wide and any kind of resistance would fall apart in short order. The battle for Ardent IV that Imperial strategist had estimated would take months to complete would be over in a mater of weeks thanks to his company's efforts this night.

Still Aajz and his men would have no rest yet, they had four more hours of the Nocturnis cycle left and he planned to make full use of them. There were rebels still to hunt and the Emperor's need for vengeance against his enemies was eternal.

Striding out in the open, he regarded his men as the waited for his orders.

"Brother Raven Guard, we take the fight to the enemy! Tactical and Devastator squads board your Rhinos! Assault squads with me! While the enemies of the Emperors till draw breath there can be no peace! Vinctorus aut Mortis!" He bellowed, firing up his jump pack and launching himself into the air like the Great Raven from chapter legend on twin tails of fire. Behind him the rest of his assault marines did likewise, the roar of jump packs would herald death to the bastard heretics of Ardent IV.

Aajz smiled to himself, 'Death from Above.'


End file.
